Tens of thousands of Spaniards are losing their life savings because of banking trickery. At the beginning of the crisis, banks that needed capital to cover loans gone bad convinced their customers to convert savings accounts into complicated securities, touting higher interest rates and the option to resell at any point. About 22 billion euros in bonds were […]

Earlier this month, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent—still high but under eight percent for the first time in four years. Now another indicator is moving upward. The FT reports that wholesale inventories and sales rose in August by 0.5 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively—higher upticks than most analysts predicted. This is a promising […]

Yesterday a Taliban gunman singled out and shot Malala Yousafzai in the head (she survived). The teenaged Malala had angered the Taliban for boldly campaigning for girls’ schooling. The shooting made international headlines, and today just about every Pakistani political party, prominent official, and at least one terrorist organization condemned the shooting. “Whoever has done it is […]

It’s no secret that Via Meadia thinks the RealClearPolitics “poll of polls” is the most consistently useful and accessible way to monitor public opinion during the endless American presidential campaign cycle. (How many days or even hours after November 6 will it take RCP to post its first poll of polls on prospective Democratic nominees […]

British defense company BAE Systems and European company EADS have failed to reach an agreement on a proposed merger. Sources close to the merger report that Germany was responsible for blocking the deal, but Britain’s concerns also played a part. European influence over British defense companies could jeopardize important defense ties with the United States: British officials have said they […]

A new IMF report showing that few European countries are expected to hit their target levels of budget deficits is adding fuel to the fires slowly consuming any remaining confidence in the policy pronouncements of European leaders. Shortly after agreeing to new deficit targets for 2013, few countries are on track to meet these targets […]

It isn’t just the US that sees Chinese telecom companies Huawei and ZTE as a threat to domestic security: Canada and Australia agree. Australia was first: Huawei was the subject of an intense political debate in Australia this year after it was barred, on security grounds, from participating in the national broadband network. In March, it […]

We’ve written before about what a patchwork mess of competing interests the Syrian resistance is. Today, we hear news that one of the rebel groups previously partnered (however loosely) with the Free Syrian Army may have connections to al-Qaeda and is claiming responsibility for some overnight blasts at an intelligence compound on the outskirts of […]

Israel has its flaws and some of its policies can, in Via Meadia’s view, be counterproductive and poorly conceived. Its system of proportional representation empowers the nutcases and tiny fringe parties. Nevertheless, facing one of its biggest threats since independence (Iran), with relations chilly with its closest ally (the U.S.), the region in flames, and […]

I feel that I should say something about the Middle East. After all, this blog is supposed to be mostly about religion. Here an entire region is exploding with rage in the name of religion, and what have I been writing about? About eco-ideologues flirting with an ancient goddess, and about homosexuals wanting to be […]